Up from the comments

This just appeared in the old thread for my Ronnie Harris post, and I thought it merited being moved up.

I also appreciate the civil conversation with Mayor Harris. I was born and raised in New Orleans, including the suburb of Gretna from age 9 to 18. My mom still lives in Terrytown, a sub-suburb of Gretna. She defends Harris, whereas I tend to take a disapproving view of his actions based on the variety of stories and angles I've heard.

I've been home several times since Katrina. I can't tell you how strange it is to see Oakwood (not Parkwood) mall in burned-out tatters. Jeeze, going to the mall was of the few mother-daughter bonding type thingies I could do with my dear old Republican Mom. Practically nothing is being done in the way of repairs. Oakwood mall sits there like an albatross with a Sears tumor on its side (the Sears store is partially re-opened) while developers wait to see if enough citizens will return to warrant rebuilding the mall (and the citizens won't return until the mall is rebuilt, so go figure); the really devastated areas are still really devastated (including homes of my family and friends) while the insurance co's, local, state and fed gov't argue about who should pay. Dude, I'm posting this on March 21, 2006, not September 21, 2005.

Grrrr.

In other news, the Ronnie Harris post did not make it to the Koufax finals. I thought I didn't care about such things--so much so that I didn't even vote myself. Now that I've actually lost, I'm wishing I had voted.